Second Chance: “Gelassenheit” Review

I have to admit, I’m kind of bummed out as I write this review since “Gelassenheit” is likely to be the series finale. Unfortunately for the freshman drama series, it’s numbers have been in a steady decline since the premiere. Not to mention being moved to Friday nights is basically a death sentence for most series. There’s no official word from Fox regarding it’s status, but given the network’s history, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Almost every season, I find myself asking why Fox even bothers with fantasy/sci-fi shows. Barely any of them make it past a first season and the majority get canned after the second! Sorry, I may still be slightly bitter over Almost Human. Oh and Firefly, Dollhouse, and Tru Calling. New Amsterdam, Wonderfalls. Ok, I have digressed, back to the review…

So in the 2nd part of a nail-biting finale, we find Duvall being hauled off to a psych hold, which luckily Jimmy rescues him from. Unfortunately, his strength is dwindling away without the help of his tank, which Mary is desperately trying to rectify by unlocking Alexa’s so he can use it. Meanwhile, poor Gracie is still under the capture of Connor and Otto.

This is pretty much the back and forth of the whole episode to be honest. The Pritchards trying to find Gracie, Mary trying to save Jimmy, and Alexa looking for redemption. Then you have Otto though, who through the course of the episode finally comes to the realization that not just Connor, but also he himself have not been the good guys through all of this.

It takes a LOT for a show to surprise me, and boy-howdy this one sure did! I literally screamed at the screen when, in a massively shocking twist, Otto kills himself and Connor by opening the hatch of their plane. Before doing so, he instructs Arthur to safely return the plane carrying Gracie back to the landing. With Gracie safe, and time running out for Jimmy, he and Duvall have a touching father/son moment and he says that he’s ready to let go. Jimmy returns to Looking Glass and has a tear-jerking farewell conversation with Mary.

At this point, I’m thinking ‘Okay, as far as an unexpected series finale goes, this is not too bad actually. Everything is pretty much being wrapped up nicely.’ So rarely do you ever get that! I was feeling pretty good. So naturally, I spoke too soon.

Suddenly, Alexa’s tank unlocks and Jimmy is saved. Mary asks Arthur if it was Otto who cracked the code and he says yes. When she asks if there was any other message, it’s only a brief reminder to feed his fish. I thought that was really cold even coming from him, but when we discover at the end of the episode that he integrated himself into A.I. it makes more sense: he knew he’d talk to her again.

Duvall’s boss calls, having discovered Graff’s underground lab. I can only imagine that will take a LOT of explaining, but it seems to have gotten him off the hook for now. This next part really ticked me off. Duvall tells Jimmy he will tell his boss that he died in the crash and that he can’t be around the family…WHAT?!? This makes absolutely no damn sense. If the show were to continue how the Hell would he possibly keep him hidden? Not to mention Jimmy pretty much flat-out said all he wanted was to know his family! The ‘you’ll get caught and be a lab rat’ defense was really flimsy.

Back at Looking Glass house, we find Mary has left Jimmy a letter explaining that she needs some time away. While on her retreat she finds that Otto has interfaced himself into A.I. He explains that he discovered a side effect of the regeneration process is extreme violence and that it will inevitably happen to Jimmy. So now we’re left to wonder, though sadly, I’m guessing we’ll never find out.

Random notes:

I don’t understand why Otto killed himself if he was just going to come back as A.I. It
was kind of unnecesarry. I’m sure there was a way that he could have gotten Graff off the plane without taking himself along.

Otto kept saying there was not enough time to reconfigure the tanks. So was he just bullshitting because he didn’t want to save Pritchard? If not, how and when did he magically unlock Alexa’s tank?

I feel like it was really random of Mary to take off like that. Yes, of course she needed grieving time, but after working THAT hard to keep Jimmy alive, she poofs on him? She said she left him the house and money etc., but what the heck about the company – it was basically imploding after everything crashed.

Um, so we’re all just cool with Alexa now???

Why did it take Otto so long to contact Mary and tell her about Pritchard and why did he bother anyway? Was he still trying to redeem himself?

If the regeneration process causes the violent reactions, how come Alexa who has been “reborn” for quite some time now, not shown any symptoms?

I freaking LOVE Tim DeKay and I really hope that if this is the end, he gets another show ASAP.

Overall Rating: B+

Keep Watching Factor: Hell yes! In the highly unlikely event that it does return, I would LOVE to see what happens next!